No Soup For Anyone

ESPN, SI, and my grandmother are now reporting that the Yankees offered arbitration to none of their eight free agents.   The Cashman said:

"The determination that we made today was to make sure we control what amount we'd be spending.  We did not want to put ourselves in a position of having that determined by a third party without knowing what that figure would be."

Boy, that sounds almost... frugal.  A little

too

frugal. A mere five minutes after this was released, Jon Heyman posted this little nugget:

Manny Ramirez still could have one chance to come home. While the Mets have all but decided they will not pursue the slugging savant from Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan, the Yankees clearly have not ruled out a run at Ramirez. <slice>

ith the Blue Jays signaling they might not spend big if pitcher

A.J. Burnett

goes elsewhere and one person close to the Phillies saying he doubted whether Ramirez will be a target of theirs, the Yankees may wind up as the Dodgers' biggest competition for Manny. The other obvious possibility for Ramirez would appear to be the Angels, whose owner,

Arte Moreno

, has said publicly that they may turn to Ramirez if they can't sign Teixeira, their top target.

There's a few things here that don't add up to me.

1. Why does the Jays spending big depend on Burnett of all people?  If he leaves, they fold?  If he stays, they're all in?  Not sure I follow the logic.

2. The Phillies, or most NL teams for that matter, don't make a heck of a lot of sense for Manny.  If you can picture this guy in your outfield for the next four or five years, you need to reevaluate.  Manny should be DHing very, very soon.

3. I don't see why the Yankees would consider adding Manny at this stage.  They would have to trade Damon, which I wouldn't mind seeing but it would disrupt the top of the order, likely forcing Jeter to lead off.  Unless Damon went back to center where he is a greater defensive liability than left field and effectively puts Melky or Gardner on the bench as a late innings defensive replacement.

4. Cashman, who has been squirrely on facts before, stated plainly that signing Sabathia and a second big ticket player (Manny, Teixeira) was wishful thinking by greedy fans.  Does deciding not to risk arbitration signal a departure from that philosophy?  Doubtful.  Two players aren't going to make the difference, especially when one is just as likely to stop playing as he is tear the cover off the ball.  Of course, if CC doesn't sign, everything changes.

What remains to be seen is what this dollar consciousness actually means.  Do they have their sights on bigger fish or is Hal tightening the strings?